Youth Skills Competitions

Foundation Innove coordinates youth skills competitions in Estonia and equips young people for the international skills competitions EuroSkills and WorldSkills. Foundation Innove is the official representative of Estonia in the organizations responsible for setting up the competitions. Estonians have successfully participated twice in the global challenge WorldSkills and once in the pan-European contest EuroSkills. The first EuroSkills ever was held in 2008 in Holland and Estonian competitors returned with two medals (silver for the slater and bronze for the bricklayer).The Global contest WorldSkills has a much longer tradition and the competitions held in Canada in 2009 were the 40th in row. In Lisbon in December 2010 in the EuroSkills, Estonia will be represented with the record 20 young people in 19 fields.

After regaining the national independence, skills competitions were first held again in 1994. Innove has been organizing skills

contests since 2006. Every year, the number of skills competitions organized by Innove has been rising. In 2010 there will be 20 competitions in 25 fields. Year 2009 was the first time when Young Master, a big event, comprising skills competitions in many fields, was held. Young Master takes place in cooperation with a popular youth information fair Teeviit.

The supporters of the Estonian Skills Competitions are European Social Fund and the Ministry of Education and Research

(MoER), participation in international competitions is supported by the MoER. In addition, many VET Institutions, enterprises and professional associations support the initiative.

Contents in Estonia and Estonian participation internationally have been brought under one brand EstoSkills.